Origin of Species, The

Pleasance Courtyard    5 - 31 August @ 12.15    Tangram Theatre Company

I have just spent an hour in the company of Charles Darwin, during which he wrote some important books, proposed some revolutionary theories, argued with his father, married his cousin, juggled with spiders and travelled to far-flung corners of the Earth. As he told his visitors, we were lucky to catch him on so eventful a day. We even met his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, whose own studies in natural history seem, unfortunately, only to have extended to the effects of cannabis on potters.
 
The show’s writer/actor, John Hinton, celebrates the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth in an intelligent and witty show, containing several marvellously eccentric songs – to his own guitar accompaniment - and a couple of the funniest lines I’ve heard at this year’s Fringe.

Where audience participation is concerned I’m usually a reluctant joiner-in, but Hinton’s diffident and slightly apologetic manner is irresistible. He has his audience playing postmen, music stands and thirteen varieties of Galapagos finch, and they leave the show with ‘Hey-hey we’re the Monkees’ ringing in their ears.